Mudashiru Abiru, Tokunbo’s father, was a renowned lawyer who left active practice for a while to join politics, and served as a two-term senator under the defunct Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN). At the truncation of his second membership in the senate, no thanks to the 1983 coup, the senior Abiru returned to his professional legal practice and became a judge of the high court where he made indelible marks.
It was also Mudashiru Abiru who established the first club in Ikorodu division, The Exclusives, in 1965 in an effort to organise the people of his community into a more cohesive people for the greater good of the community.
Just like his father, Tokunbo Abiru, an economist and banker, has been traversing the terrains of banking, politics and social welfare for close to three decades in his quest for the betterment of the people of Lagos State. With an estimated three-decade experience, covering strategic banking operations – financial control, commercial and public sector banking, corporate banking etc., as well as his services as the Commissioner for Finance, Lagos State, Tokunbo Abiru accumulated a vast array of dynamic experience through his service in both the public and private sectors.
Like his father, who left a lucrative private practice, Tokunbo left a bourgeoning career in banking to accept the offer from the then governor of Lagos State, Babatunde Fashola, to serve as Commissioner for Finance in 2011. It is noteworthy that it was under his watch that Lagos State successfully floated the N80billion bond, earning it the EMEA Finance’s Best Local Currency Bond Award for 2012.
After about two years of meritorious public service to Lagos State, Abiru returned to his first love, the banking sector as an Executive Director, Corporate Banking Group of First Bank Nigeria Plc, a position he held until the time he left for Skye Bank in 2016 as Managing Director.
A close rundown of the life of Tokunbo Abiru buttresses the age long dictum of “like father, like son” – from their love of their constituency.
I believe Tokunbo Abiru has all it takes and much more – including his training, experience and empathy – to offer quality representation to the people of the Lagos East Senatorial District and beyond.
•Tosin Yusuph wrote in from Ikorodu
